Monday, August 17, 2015

Mora Campground / Rialto Beach

We headed out from Hobuck Beach about 1:00 PM on Sunday. Our destination was another spot in the Olympic National Forest - Mora Campground. It's a good thing we are in no hurry because we seemed to be perpetually stuck behind drivers who thought being 10 mph under the speed limit was the best idea.

We finally made it to Forks, WA, about 3:00 PM and stopped to snag some groceries.

Let me just mention that while I was here during daylight hours and didn't see one vampire, of course, I am hard pressed to figure out why they would wanna settle here!

After shopping, we headed down the highway to Mora Campground. For a Sunday, it was pretty full. At least half the sites were occupied but we found one (C57) that work pretty well for the MoFo. We set things up and enjoyed an adult beverage (Fremont Interurban IPA) to reward ourselves for our efforts. And by "we" I mean both Rudy and myself as she loves beer and seemed to sneak more than her fair share today.

Monday morning was slow and lazy. (But then, so far, life on the road has mostly been pretty "slow and lazy.") we were holding off our visit to Rialto Beach until the afternoon. We wanted to catch low tide, which wasn't until 6:45 PM.

The good news is that dogs can be on Rialto Beach - unlike most other areas within national parks. The bad news is that they can only be on a half mile stretch of it and where I want to go - Hole In The Wall - is a mile and a half up the coastline.

So, Rudy and I strolled as far as we could and were pretty awestruck by the tons of driftwood on this beach. It's like this is the place trees go to die!

After some lunch I took Rudy back to the MoFo. We hung out there for a bit and then I ventured out on my own to see Hole In The Wall. (Rudy was safe inside the temperature controlled environs of the MoFo while I was gone, btw.)

The walk down the beach was easy - except for the sinking sand and lots of rocks along the way. The reward at the end would be worth pretty much any amount of effort, however. The sea stacks alone are pretty impressive!

But the reason I'm here is to check out Hole In The Wall. When you come at it from the south while the tide is still going out you may think you won't be able to get very close. But fear not gentle traveler! I have two alternatives for you. The first is to bide your time admiring the view and taking pictures until the tide recedes a bit more OR you can make the trek over the top of the "wall" to the north side where the access is a bit easier.

I went with option two and while it is a steep climb it's short and the view from on high is worth it!

On the north side there seems to be an abundance of tide pools to explore. And you can get through to Hole In The Wall a bit earlier from this side. After talking more than my fair share of pictures, I worked my through the Hole and back to the beach on the other side.

I spent about an hour out there and was impressed with the raw beauty of the place.

Lots of folks were out there to camp on the beach that night. If Rudy could have joined me, I would have been one of them. But we sucked it up and stayed in the campground one more night before heading up to visit the Hoh Rain Forest.